Pluim Park is famous for its autumn/winter foggy nights, and last Saturday night it turned it on in style, but it did not hinder an efficient Parramatta Eagles team who showed why they are leading the Super League competition.

When first meets last it is usually assumed that the leaders would have an easy match, but Central Coast Lightning proved that to be not the case, and for the first thirty minutes competed well, and in some cases outplayed the Eagles.

The action started straight from the kick off with Parramatta winning a corner in the second minute, from which Nick Tantalos saw his header cleared of the line by Darren Cooper. Lightning immediately fought back and Jamie Lobb made a good run down the left hand flank, crossed in to the penalty only to see Alex Burrell's shot cleared for a corner.

Kutaiba Elrich repeated Lobb's effort for the Eagles and his cross to Brain Soane was also cleared away when things looked dangerous. And so it went on for half an hour, first Lightning the Eagles making chances, going close, with the cellar dwellers showing the League leaders that they were in for a hard game.

At the half hour mark, Matthew Clowes made a run for the Eagles and passed to Kutaiba Elrich inside the Lightning penalty area. He was marked closely by two defenders, but with an astute turn and quick flick of his foot, the ball was in the net for the opening goal! Lightning were stunned and the Eagles naturally elated. 0-1

The fog started to appear and it was getting hard to see what was going on, on the other side of the field.

Three minutes later Lightning's Brady Smith latched on to a long clearance from his defence, outsped his marker and with only Anthony Costa, the Eagles 'keeper to beat tried a chip over his head but somehow Costa got a finger to the ball to stop an almost certain goal.

Half time came with no added score but plenty more fog!

Straight from the restart the Eagles earned a free kick about 25 metres out from the Lightning goal. Soane put a perfect ball into the goalmouth where an in rushing Clowes saw his header scrape the top of the crossbar. For the next fifteen minutes both teams resumed their early first half efforts and twice Lightning looked like equalizing but either quick defence or poor finishing prevented a goal.

With twenty minutes to go Daniel Fogarty made a run down the left hand side and crossed the ball into the Lightning penalty area and Shane Ardle met it with a flying header that goalkeeper Josh Barrett never saw until he picked the ball up out of the back of the net. 0-2!

Parramatta's experience and speed started to tell on the young Lightning players and even the now seemingly impenetrateable fog could not help them from stopping substitute Chris Camilleri making the result look easier that it had been with a good solo effort. 0-3

Lightning had tried hard but the result had been inevitable. Coach Peter Preston stated "I'm happy with our performance even though we lost the game. They showed why they are top of the table, but our young boys tried hard and will only learn from the experience. There is still a long way to go and after last week's win and tonight's performance things are beginning to look up".

Brian Dene, Eagle's coach, was naturally elated with another three points but fully admitted that the opposition had made his boys work hard.

And the fog got even thicker!!

With Fraser Park picking up points Central Coast slump to the bottom of the table again.

Under 20: Central Coast FC - Parramatta Eagles